Leadership

This page describes my significant leadership roles, and leadership development I have done.

Leadership Roles

Member, UWP executive committee (2011-present)

The University Writing Program (UWP) has almost 80 faculty: 70+ full time, non-tenure track lecturers, and seven tenure track professors. The tenure track faculty are the executive committee for the program.

Responsibilities include setting policy; participating in personnel review of all lecturer faculty; making decisions about curriculum; consulting with the UWP director on policy applications and on budget; and leading other program committees/work groups as needed.

Chair, UC Davis Grade Change Committee (2016-2019)

This committee reads, deliberates about, and makes decisions on 60-100 student petitions per month. Petitions include documentation to support requests for retroactive withdrawals, for retroactive course drops, for retroactive course adds, and for grade mode changes (e.g. from “Pass/No Pass” to letter grade, or vice versa).

I was appointed chair after service as a regular committee member in 2015-2016. The chair leads meetings, casts tie-breaking votes, responds to urgent petitions between meeting times (including during summer), and serves as the point of contact with other committees and with administrative offices.

Co-Director, UC Davis Center for Design in the Public Interest (2013-2016)

The Center for Design in the Public Interest (DiPi) works on improving the design of everyday objects, sharing its products and its processes via Creative Commons licenses.

I co-founded DiPi with Professor Susan Verba (UC Davis Department of Design) in 2013. Together we wrote a grant proposal that provided three years of start-up funding ($400,000); negotiated with the campus for a workspace; hired and managed staff; recruited and mentored volunteers; managed the center’s budget; sought additional sources of funding; and collaborated on scholarly publications.

Leadership Development

Participant, UC Davis Faculty Leadership Academy (2016)

The Faculty Leadership Academy offers training for faculty who “have demonstrated the potential for leadership and who may aspire to join the ranks of academic leaders.” I was selected as a participant and completed the training in 2016.

Participants attend 30 hours of training over six mandatory sessions. These sessions cover a range of leadership practices, using case studies to explore “leadership styles, managing conflict, effective communication, time management, creating diverse and inclusive departments, and effecting departmental culture change.”

Other Workshops at UC Davis

In addition to completing the Faculty Leadership Academy, I have participated in a range of brown bags and workshops that have helped me grow as a teacher, scholar, leader, and university citizen. These workshops include:

UndocuAlly Training on how to support undocumented students and others in the campus and larger community.

  • Three hours
  • Led by staff and students from the AB 540 and Undocumented Student Center

Mentoring at Critical Transitions workshop on “Successful Mentorship of First Generation and Historically Underrepresented Graduate Students.”

  • Two hours
  • Led by Dr. Cynthia Neal Spence, Associate Professor of Sociology at Spelman College and Director of the UNCF/Mellon Program

National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity workshop on “Rethinking Mentoring: How to Build Communities of Inclusion, Support, and Accountability.”

  • Three hours
  • Led by Dr. Mindi Thompson, NCFDD Faculty Success Program Head Coach

Workshop on “Leading with Intention: Mentoring and Motivating Others toward Common Vision.”

  • Two hours
  • Led by Dr. Diane Klotz, Director of the Office of Training and Academic Services at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute; formerly Director of the Office of Fellows’ Career Development at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Graduate Training

My leadership preparation began during my PhD program at the University of Nevada, Reno (2004-2009).  It included:

  • Significant participation in the programmatic assessment; for example, I helped design the rubric, took part in the assessment sessions, and wrote the final assessment report at the direction of the WPA. WASC later praised the assessment as a “model” for the rest of the university to follow.
  • Two years as the junior WPA directing the developmental composition course.
  • Course work in Writing Program Administration and Writing Program Assessment.
  •  Two years as a portfolio reader for students challenging their placement into developmental and first year writing courses.

Outside Academia

From 1991-2001 I worked in the private sector, mainly as a technical writer and editor. During that time, I held a variety of jobs, some of which included management responsibilities.